


“We Will Not Be Charmed Into Compliance”

by Geekhyena



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Ableism, Civil Rights Protest, Epistolary, F/F, Fix-It of Sorts, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Neurodiversity, News Media, Newspaper Article, PoC! Hermione, autistic characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2015-09-13
Packaged: 2018-04-20 12:16:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4786943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geekhyena/pseuds/Geekhyena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The neurodiversity movement hits wizarding Britain, and they will not be silenced.</p>
            </blockquote>





	“We Will Not Be Charmed Into Compliance”

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eysharryfreakingpotter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eysharryfreakingpotter/gifts).



> Many thanks to verdigrisvagabond and olofa from tumblr for being awesome betas!

**“We Will Not Be Charmed Into Compliance” says new Coalition for Magical Neurodiversity**

By Antigone Awn, Daily Prophet Special Correspondent

 

A massive demonstration took place outside St. Mungo’s Hospital today, protesting mental health treatment methods as currently practiced in wizarding Britain.  Several hundred wizards, mostly half-bloods and muggleborns, protested outside the hospital waving banners such as “Acceptance Now”, “We Do Not Need To Be Cured”, “Diversity Makes Us Stronger”, and “Psychotherapy Not Potions”.  

“We are tired of risking involuntary institutionalization simply for seeking help!” cried Octavia Hathaway, who as readers may recall, was found wandering Snowdonia after the traumatic death of her husband and daughter during the Second Wizarding War. After Cheering Charms were found to be ineffective in treating her depression, she was institutionalized against her will in the Long-Term Mental Ward of St. Mungo’s. “I was forcibly charmed into submission even as my mind screamed against it.  I was grieving and depressed after a very stressful time, and they treated me by sedating my body so that I was no longer a nuisance. It was worse than what prisoners in Azkaban receive - I was guilty of no crime other than being depressed.  This cannot stand.”  Eventually released following petitions from family members, Ms. Hathaway has been an outspoken critic of the mental health practices of the majority of wizarding medics, as well as the ostracism and unemployment that followed her release.  “I needed community support, and the fact is that a culture of shame surrounds mental health issues in wizarding Britain, even as we see more and more people affected by the Great Wars.”

“Circumstances surrounding my mother’s death have been long-hidden,” added Luna Granger-Lovegood, leading magizoologist and mental health advocate.  “She had been suffering from what the muggle world would classify as obsessive-compulsive disorder, and was working on a potion to cure what she viewed as a deep shame.  If the wizarding world had been more accepting of differences in how people’s brains work, she might not have died.  I was lucky that my father understood that my brain works differently than other peoples’, and that I was able to pass as simply ‘odd’. The bullying and maltreatment my mother experienced her entire life was a contributing factor in her death. No one should feel driven to pursue dangerous ‘cures’ for something that is not wrong in the first place.”  

Showing off her “Proud to Be Weird” banner, Mrs. Granger-Lovegood continued. “Wizards have a high tolerance for weirdness but that makes it easier to ignore people who actually need help, or they say people who get bullied deserve it for being odd.  My father didn’t want me to go through what my mother did, so he made sure I learned to come across as weird but not too much so.” Mrs. Granger-Lovegood shrugged.  “Didn’t help all that much - I still got bullied by my fellow students.  They used to steal my books and drop them in the lake, did you know? I mean the giant squid was always happy to fetch them for me, and I got very good at drying spells, but it was always so inconvenient, you know? They stopped eventually at least! Well, they stopped with that. They kept coming up with new ways”

“Hogwarts was a joke,” agreed Hermione Granger-Lovegood, Co-founder/Chair of the newly-formed Coalition for Magical Neurodiversity. “The wizarding world itself is a joke when it comes to mental health. We are so far behind the muggle world it’s disgusting! There’s no such thing as psychiatry or psychology, and mental health issues are either ignored or cause for institutionalization!  Or they just lock the person up at home and no one talks about them! No such thing as therapy or medication, unless you count Cheering Charms.” Addressing the crowd, Mrs. Granger-Lovegood called out “How many here have been treated with Cheering Charms?” Several in the crowd raised their hands.  “Did it actually help anything?” she continued.

The crowd replied with a resounding “NO!”, and Hermione Granger-Lovegood continued. “Have you ever had one of those used on you?  During my third year I experienced a bout of depression caused by bullying, and when I sought the advice of Madame Pomfrey, she advised me to “keep a stiff upper lip” and “maybe do something about that hair, dear, it does look a bit odd.”  While I was trying to form a response to her slight about my natural hair, she then proceeded to tell me that “a Cheering Charm will be just the thing to help you over these blues.”  What it did was violate my mind - it made me act happy, but inside I was just as depressed. I just couldn’t communicate anything but positive emotion. It turned me into a cheerful automaton.  It was a violation of my civil rights and made me even more depressed once it wore off.  It’s like what they do to prisoners in Azkaban, but our only crime was being too different for their liking!”

“They use it to shut us up and keep us compliant!” called out a participant in the march.  “They don’t care about our health, they care about maintaining the system!”  The participant revealed himself to be Seamus Finnigan, survivor of the Battle of Hogwarts, who now works in product development for Weasely’s Wizard Wheezes.  “That’s why me mam mostly left the wizarding world - she was fed up with the Cheering Charms just because she’s got depression! She met me da’ at a support group for muggles with depression, and she’s much better than she ever was with magical ‘cures’. All the wizarding world ever did was make her feel defective and ignored!”

“I’ve had ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, since I was young,” added Dean Thomas, coming up to hold Finnigan’s hand in his.  Rumors have been flying about these two ever since Finnigan was seen as Thomas’s date at the release party for Luna Granger Lovegood’s _A Guide to the Magical Invertebrates of Britain and Europe_ , to which Thomas contributed several beautiful illustrations, including one of the rare Vernon’s Lawn Crayfish, a species thought extinct in Britain until it was rediscovered in a rosebush in Cardiff last year.  

“Mum fought tooth and nail to get me diagnosed, but the school’s therapist helped so much.  When McGonagall came with my Hogwarts letter, Mum asked about what accommodations were there for students with learning disabilities.  McGonagall had no idea what she was talking about, and assumed I was slow. It took a lot of proving first year to get the professors to think otherwise.”  

“It’s bullshite,” Finnigan agreed, causing Thomas to glare.  “Sorry, but it is! D’ya know, in Muggle schools, students with dyslexia and the like are guaranteed help so they can do their best? Here we write them off as dullards! I mean look at what happened to Neville - everyone thought he was barely more’n a squib and now he’s a bleedin’ professor!”

Indeed, unlike in muggle Britain, where disabled students are guaranteed academic accommodation, such support is nonexistent in the wizarding world, if the issues are recognized at all. Many students are instead written off as “dullards” and “unfit for education”, and denied proper schooling, a bias that the protesters claim is depriving the wizarding world of several bright minds that might otherwise be changing the world.

“I didn’t realize I was dyslexic until Hermione explained what it was,” explained Neville Longbottom, current Herbology professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  “I thought I was stupid when the letters would seem to rearrange themselves on the page. When I attempted to discuss this with my grandmother, she said I simply wasn’t trying hard enough.  Hermione explained that it was a well-recognized issue in the muggle world, and helped me learn strategies to work around it.  It is a shame that the wizarding world has no understanding of issues like this, and I am pleased to be working with the Coalition for Magical Neurodiversity to identify and help students who might otherwise have had their needs ignored and suffered academically as a result.”

When approached for comment, current Minister for Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt said hurriedly that while the Ministry had no formal position on the protests at this time, they would take the complaints seriously and investigate the allegations of unfair treatment of mentally ill and neurodivergent wixen at St. Mungo’s and other wizarding hospitals.  “Public health is an issue that affects us all,” added the Minister.  “And we will act to ensure fair treatment.” He refused further comment, citing an urgent meeting he was late for. If he deigns to comment further, the Prophet will update the public on the Ministry’s response (or lack thereof) to this new civil rights movement.

For some, however, this isn’t enough.  “You know who could have used some help and understanding?” commented Harry Potter, who was at the front of the protest, carrying a banner that read ‘WE WILL NOT BE IGNORED’.  “All of us at Hogwarts during the last War!  We dealt with things no students should have had to deal with and were just expected to cope without help.  People who complained about nightmares just got Dreamless Sleep potions - some are still addicted to it!  It’s irresponsible.  We weren’t treated as students in those days, we were treated as fodder for the war Dumbledore knew was coming.  Professor McGonagall tried as best she could, but no one dared cross Dumbledore. We were pawns to him.  So many of us lost friends and family in that war, is it any wonder we have such high rates of addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder?  But there’s no help out there except for the survivor’s meetings Lee Jordan set up.  There needs to be a change.”

With such an outspoken statement by the Boy Who Lived, will this perhaps turn the tide of public opinion? Will the wizarding world use muggle methods to cure an issue many say has been systematically ignored? Only time will tell.

  



End file.
